Baton Rouge home sales drop in November, prices move upward

Baton Rouge-area home sales were 13.8% lower in November than the year before because of large sales drops in Ascension and East Baton Rouge parishes.

There were 716 homes sold in metro Baton Rouge during November, according to figures released by the Greater Baton Rouge Association of Realtors’ Multiple Listing Service.

Adobe Stock

That compares with 831 Multiple Listing Service sales in the nine-parish region during November 2017.

This was the ninth time this year there was a year-to-year drop in the number of houses sold.

Through the first 11 months of the year, home sales are down by 5.3% to 9,861 from 10,413.

In East Baton Rouge Parish, which accounts for the largest segment of the local housing market, there was a 16.7% drop in MLS sales for November to 375 sales from 450 a year ago. Ascension Parish had a bigger drop, falling 15.9% in sales to 138 from 164.

Livingston Parish, which has long been a haven for first-time buyers, had a 1.6% increase in MLS sales to 130 from 128 a year ago.

Despite the drop in sales, home prices rose. The median sale price for a home in metro Baton Rouge was $204,700, a 7.7% increase from the $190,000 in November 2017. That means half the homes sold for below that price, half for above that price.

The average sale price rose by 7.8% to $233,749 from $216,926. The average sale price can be affected by luxury home sales.

Pending sales, an indicator of future activity, was virtually unchanged in November, going from 721 in 2017 to 722. New listings were up 2.5% to 1,003 from 978.

There were 4,315 homes for sale in metro Baton Rouge during November, a 16.8% increase from the year before. The supply increased from 4 months to 4.9 months. Six months is considered a healthy supply of homes. The number of days a house was on the market before it sold was up from 58 to 64.

Through the first 11 months of the year, Ascension was 0.8% behind in sales from the year before, at 1,809 compared with 1,824 MLS sales. Sales were down 4% in Livingston Parish to 1,845 from 1,921, while East Baton Rouge sales were down 7.7% to 5,239 from 5,676.